Description
Unlike the Chemical Brothers--their longstanding U.K. brothers in electronica--Underworld have been allowed to grow (relatively) old without being accused of stagnating. A Hundred Days Off, Underworld's first studio release since the departure of member Darren Emerson, demonstrates why. An ecstatic headrush of percolating beats, swirling syn
Unlike the Chemical Brothers--their longstanding U.K. brothers in electronica--Underworld have been allowed to grow (relatively) old without being accused of stagnating. A Hundred Days Off, Underworld's first studio release since the departure of member Darren Emerson, demonstrates why. An ecstatic headrush of percolating beats, swirling synth, and shape-shifting melodies, A Hundred Days Off drags everything from Delta blues to space-age pop onto the dance floor. Because the pair takes their cues in part from the real world, filtering each idea through the prism of a rave record, we get wonky faux church bells chiming in one especially frenzied passage of the nine-minute epic "Two Months Off." Elsewhere, as on the curiously named "Trim," straightforward vocal phrasings are set against (what might be) twangy, scotch-soaked guitar while a static drum beat clicks in the distance. On the towering centerpiece track, "Dinosaur Adventure 3D," a vicious cymbal guts an otherwise unassuming house track, albeit one built on an increasingly complex (and speedy) palette of sounds, before a tribal vocal goosesteps over top. Clubby, dubby, and positively smokin'. --Kim Hughes
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